Mission, Diaspora, and Indigenous Agency

Chinese Christianity in Cold War Southern Thailand

Abstract

This article examines the development of Chinese Christianity in southern Thailand during the mid-twentieth century through a case study of American Presbyterian missionary Carl E. Blanford’s ministry in Hat Yai between 1951 and 1963. Drawing on Blanford’s correspondence housed at the Payap University Archives, the study traces a transition from itinerant evangelism and church planting to a more institutionalized model centered on lay leadership and community outreach. It analyzes how Chinese and Sino-Thai Christians localized the gospel within their ethnic and cultural frameworks, while reconfiguring religious authority and devotional practices in a frontier environment shaped by social hybridity and Cold War politics. By foregrounding indigenous agency and transnational networks, this research contributes to the growing literature on Chinese Christianity as a polycentric and adaptive religious movement among diaspora communities in Southeast Asia.